Authorities in Macedonia say more than 2,000 police officers will be on duty for Tuesday’s Super Cup soccer match between Real Madrid and Manchester United, amid a heatwave in the Balkan country.

Hours before Manchester United and Real Madrid met at the Philip II Arena in Skopje on Tuesday, thousands of fans of the clubs — many from neither England nor Spain — gathered in the Macedonian capital in a festive atmosphere despite heatwave temperatures of 38 degrees (100 F).

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City authorities set up three fan zones, one for each team plus an area for neutrals, where fans posed with UEFA trophies, lined up to fire penalty shots into a miniature goal, and dodged or danced through spurts of water from a grid fountain in the city’s main square.

There were multiple road closures and even a limit imposed on the size of flags fans could carry into the stadium.

Tiny Macedonia, with a struggling economy and having recently emerged from months of political crisis, hoped to persuade visitors to turn their stay into a holiday, and issued promotional videos for the city in English.

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